


Touch

by M_Renoir



Series: Siren/Merman AU [2]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: M/M, Pointless fluff, merman!engineer, siren!spy, siren/merman au, with a side of worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 10:17:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_Renoir/pseuds/M_Renoir
Summary: Spy vs culture shock, who will win? In other words, touching a merperson's tail is a sign of intimacy. Basically, touching the tail is the same as if someone touched your leg, and would you want someone you just got to know a few weeks ago to be touching your leg? Probably not. Fortunately, Spy's too much of an idiot to smack, at least right now.





	Touch

It had been several weeks since they had first met. They had since figured out some kind of working relationship. For example, Spy had asked Engineer to help him find food, mainly since Spy hated getting his feathers wet. Engineer, in return, had requested for Spy to collect trinkets off of the sailors he consumed. A win win situation, at least in Spy’s opinion. He got his food with less effort, and Engineer got his strange human gadgets. 

It was mid morning that day. The sun had not quite reached its zenith and the day not quite at its warmest, when Engineer showed up at the island. He slipped out of the crystalline water with perhaps a bit less grace then he would've liked. The rock he situated himself atop was just the right amount of warm and wet, with the ocean waves throwing enough spray onto the rock to maintain a comfortable amount of moisture for him. Perfect. Although most merfolk preferred to stay away from the surface, Engie actually liked it. The sun could be deadly if exposed to it for too long, but personally, this merman enjoyed the warmth it offered. The ocean was always so cold that the sunshine offered a pleasant shift in temperature that he quite honestly found rather refreshing. Flopping down on a flatter part of the rock, he sighed contentedly and stretched out, letting his tail and the longer fins on his hips trail in the water. His tail flipped in the water, adding a little extra splash to the movement of the waves. 

Soft yellow rays of sunlight shone down on the merman’s iridescent tail and the equally beautiful waves around him. Engineer found his eyes slowly drifting shut. He knew he needed to get moving, but the weather today was simply too nice to not enjoy. Besides, he knew there was little danger to sunning himself in this part of the island: there was a large crag a little ways behind him, and he was hidden by a pile of rocks from the beach. So he could relax… 

It was the ever so gentle hand brushing against his hip that woke him, not the sudden shadow hovering over him nor the sound of flapping wings. 

“Wha--” he blinked and rubbed his eyes, turning over to find that the sun was suddenly blocked out by his feathered friend. “Spy…? What’re you doing?” Spy quickly withdrew, looking like he was just caught with a hand in the cookie jar. 

“... Just saying hello,” the siren replied nonchalantly, sitting back slightly so he was out of Engineer’s face. The merman blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the sunlight. He flipped his tail again, getting a bit more water on himself. Spy hissed and shifted out of the way. 

“Were you just trying to touch my tail?” Engineer asked after taking a moment to process what had happened while he was waking up. 

“... It looked shiny,” came the clipped reply. 

Engineer couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up in his chest. “You--Thought my tail looked shiny? So that’s why you… Tried to touch it?” he chortled, sitting up on the rock. Spy looked away, his lips pressing into a thin line. Engineer could’ve sworn that Spy’s face was a little redder than before, although it could just be the sun. 

“... I suppose so... “ 

“Well--I’m not sure about you land--air?--folk, but it just--It just ain’t something that you do. It’s like touching someone’s leg without permission,” Engineer explained between short bouts of laughter. “Something for folks who are more familiar than just having known one another for a few weeks.” Really, touching a merperson’s tail almost anywhere was a sign of intimacy. The tails of merfolk really are what define them as different, and what keeps them alive in the ocean. Fins were delicate things too, so getting near them required the trust of the merfolk in question. But Spy wouldn’t understand that, Engineer knew. They were from two completely different worlds, after all. 

“I… Didn’t grow up around a lot of people. Is this something society-people do? The--um--people who live with others. I live by myself.” As he spoke, his words became faster and more tumbling. “I’m sorry--”

“It’s alright,” Engineer patted Spy’s arm. “I guess with you growin’ up alone and all wouldn’t let you know all the ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s of interacting with someone else. You’ll learn over time.” 

Spy sighed and turned his face slightly back towards the merman, ruffling his feathers slightly. 

“Ah--Speakin’ of touching, I’ll admit, I’ve always to feel what those wings are like. The feathers look awfully smooth,” Engineer mused. “But I didn’t know if I’d be oversteppin’ a boundary if I tried.” Spy looked at him with a bit more attention now, his face carrying an unreadable expression. 

“... You can feel my wings,” he replied after a long pause. Engineer blinked. Well, maybe wings weren’t as off limits as tails were. He sat up as tall as he could to reach, and gently rested his flesh hand against the siren’s shiny black feathers. Starting at the shoulder, he slowly ran his hands along the curve of the wing, making sure not to ruffle anything. He hadn’t expected the feathers to be so smooth, or for the wing to feel so alive underneath his fingers. If anything, Spy was vibrating a little, although Engineer chalked it up to the beating of the siren’s heart. He had heard somewhere that bird hearts beat pretty quickly. Perhaps sirens were no exception. But unlike the unfortunate birds that ended up at the bottom of the ocean, Spy’s feathers were so soft and incredibly smooth. For some reason, the merman was always under the impression that bird feathers were all scraggly and horrible-feeling, but clearly, this was not the case. 

A soft chirrup interrupted his thoughts. Engineer looked up and saw that Spy’s eyes had fallen closed and, if he wasn’t completely going off the deep end, he could’ve sworn the siren was the one who was making quiet little chirps of enjoyment. He didn’t want to ruin the moment, though. It really looked like the siren was enjoying himself. Engineer went back to gently running his hands over the siren’s feathers, feeling the curve of the powerful muscles beneath. A subconscious sigh escaped his lips and the spell was broken. 

“That’s enough,” Spy announced, drawing his wings back and out of the merman’s reach. His voice sounded a little strained, like he had just woken up from a particularly long nap. “I--I just wanted to say that there are a few trinkets that washed up on shore the other day. They’re in a cave near here. Do you want to see them?” 

Engineer’s mind reeled a little from the sudden shift in mood. “Uh--Sure, let’s have a look, then.” He smiled before slipping back into the water with a grunt and a splash.

**Author's Note:**

> Touch the tail touch the tail touch the tai--Ahem. I'd probably be tempted too, tbh, bc the picture of his tail in my head is this shiny, smooth, amazingly beautiful fish tail. Did I mention he's based off of a fire dwarf gourami? A tropical freshwater fish, I know that, but I chose it bc they're tiny and they build little bubble nests (building --> Engineer). Spy's a frigatebird mostly for the lols tbh 
> 
> Just a little something to tide us over while I continue to slave away on BB&B, since the latest chapter is giving me some strife in terms of writing it... Gotten to about 1k words and then nothing. I don't want to just leave y'all with a mediocre short chapter, so I'm working on trying to push at least 2k before I call it quits and post. Should still be up around mid-June though, if not earlier if I can bust my ass before graduation. 
> 
> Also, I'll be putting up more posts analyzing the dynamics of the oceanic mer-kingdoms, which have a healthy dose of Little Mermaid-esque hierarchies, feudalistic features, and Medieval tribalism! So not entirely Ancient Greek, but close enough I guess. Also more about sirens and how they propagate! There aren't that many sirens bc predators = 1/10th of prey, and even then must have large territories, so... Not that many sirens. I'll talk more about their respective backstories and more worldbuilding in later chapters I guess.


End file.
